I've Got You Covered: The Amount of Pavement Covered by Street Trees

"In this study, the scientists wanted to know how much of a city’s paved surfaces should be covered by trees. Paved surfaces include streets, sidewalks, and parking lots. Many benefits are provided by urban trees when they cover paved surfaces. To answer their question, they first needed a way to estimate the current amount of ground and pavement that urban trees cover. This is because the amount of benefits provided by urban trees is related to the amount of ground and pavement that their canopies cover. Unless the scientists found out how much of the city’s paved surfaces were currently covered by trees, they could not determine whether more tree cover was needed." [excerpted from Thinking About Science]